During the past year or so, the smartphone industry has succumbed to the world of monotony. Nothing excites me anymore. It’s just another phone with a bigger RAM, bigger storage, faster processor, better display, new colors. It has become boring to say the least. Who would have thought that a mid-range will bring back the honor and glory of owning one.
Yup, HONOR.
If it sounds familliar, because it actually is. HONOR was once in the Philippines as a sub-brand of a tech brand that eventually flapped its own wings and flew to greater heights. So basically it has access to all to all its technology without Google restrictions. Imagine a senator that only yaps during sessions but does nothing in the end, that’s how it feels like owning something that’s limited. With HONOR you get the best of both worlds, it has the credentials and it performs. So, what makes it an exciting brand?
Wait, dito na tayo sa exciting part. Durability. Specifically the HONOR X9a 5G. I’ve always mentioned, even in my past reviews that I love seeing a phone without its case. I mean the designers spent a lot of time making it look pretty only to be covered with a case. It sucks right. That’s why I always use a clear case to showcase its beauty. If my phone was durable enough, I would opt not to use a case. That’s where HONOR comes in.
The HONOR X9a 5G is the most durable phone I have come across with. To begin it feels so light and fragile as it only measures 7.9mm thin, weighs 175g and has a 6.67-inch OLED Curved Display with a 93% screen to body ratio. It’s something that you really wouldn’t want to drop. The question is, should you really worry about dropping it?
It’s been dropped numerous times in different scenarios, smashed, ran over by a car, and still lives to tell its tale.
The curved display has a 120hz refresh rate with blue light technology to reduce harmful blue light, and supports industry leading 1920Hz PWM Dimming technology to reduce screen flickering. The punch hole is the place holder for the 16MP f/2.45 selfie camera.
At the back you’ll find the ring, a Matrix Star Ring Camera Design that houses the tripple camera system:
- 64MP f/1.8 main
- 5MP f/2.2 ultrawide/depth
- 2MP f/2.4 macro
Here are some shots taken from the camera. No edits, just resized.
Powering the device is a massive 5100mAh that supports up to 2 days of daily use for uninterrupted work, play and entertainment on the go. Running the HONOR X9a 5G is the Qualcomm® Snapdragon® 695 5G Mobile Platforma 6nm advanced processor with integrated GPU (Qualcomm® Adreno™ 619) and CPU (Qualcomm® Kryo™ 660). It come in either 6GB or 8GB RAM but both comes with HONOR RAM Turbo Technology optimizes RAM usage by compressing background apps to ensure smoother operation.
I’m not a gamer guy but I do play some COD once in a while. What I do most of the time is multi-tasking. Running multiple apps at a time is part of my work. From gmail, multiple chrome tabs, slack, notion, telegram, Lightroom mobile, canva mobile, hootsuite, video editing and more. Having a smart phone that can handle all this and more is a blessing. HONOR X9a 5G can do all this and the experience is far better because of its light weight and a curved OLED screen.
To sum it all up, some may say that the HONOR X9a 5G is competing against established brands in its category. Honestly, they all go head-to-head when it comes to specs and performance, but one things is for sure, once you drop you won’t stop. I was hesitant it dropping it the first time, but as soon as I realized that it didn’t do any harm on the screen or the phone itselt, I enjoyed doing the drop test. It can withstand any dropping scenario possible. Some dropped it from the second floor, others had it rolling the stairs, some on different floor setting (tiles, brincks, cement, wood, etc). It has been proven to be the most durable phone I got to try.
